Saturday, October 23, 2010

Banshee, Sideshow and Silver share warmth on the bed. Also, I don't get the bed made and the laundry put away. I have a theory that if I leave the laundry piled tightly in a warm pile it'll reproduce and I'll have more clothing!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

This is a book of pictures of lovely gardens. But not just lovely gardens in general; the authors have taken the very best bits from gardens all over the world and shown them to us and *explained* why they were showing them to us. How different gates fit into different garden styles. How the different elements of a Japanese garden work to create mood. How different garden styles fit different environments. Each picture has a terse bit of text telling us why this garden element is effective, so that the home gardener can make use of it.

I like this approach. We may not be able to recreate Great Dixter or Hidcote, but we can certainly arrange plants in a way that creates a nice tableau or make it look nicer under the trees wth appropriate shade plants. It’s a book that will have you marking pages so you can try out the ideas presented.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Spent the day getting 'stuff' put up on the walls, after letting it sit about for some time. It's migrated into my life over the course of at least a year. Time to make floor space!

This is a crappy resin thing. I found it at a yard sale; it had a wood grain finish that was truly dreadful. I painted it low sheen off white, antiqued it, filled a hole with JB Weld, and here we go. I do need to move the flower thing down.

A fabric banner, probably from Nepal, that Colin got rid of. Natasha has already been up there, playing with it. *sigh*

Added to the collection of plates over the wood stove, which ranges from Middle Eastern brass, Japanese (fake) Imari, resin knockoffs, and the Simpsons.

Two Brazilian embroidery pieces by my former SIL, which dont' fit the scheme of the room, but it's the only room with blue in it. And I'm not sure what that wood thing is- it's lovely, carved and inlaid and pierced, but it's useless as a plate or bowl. So it's a wall ornament that makes pretty shadows.

And there are still more things to put up. Maybe tomorrow, if I get the giant pile of laundry put away. It was finally dry out, and I could hang laundry to dry.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Went to class on tissue culture today. No, I'm not brewing up my own stem cells, it's about plants. Fascinating class; really makes me want to go back to college. I mean, I always want to go back to college, but now I want to go back and take hort classes, not just the usual English and history classes I dream about.

We got to take some cuttings (each about 1/4" square, which will yield several plants each if all goes well), put them in petri dishes and hopefully watch them grow. We were allowed to use forceps that we sterilized by dipping in alcohol and then putting in a candle flame, and no one started a fire or turned over the alcohol even though the instructor said he knew it could happen because he set a fire once doing it. Nor did anyone cut themselves on the scalpels. I assume this has also happened before, since the instructor said "Don't push down on the wrong edge of it!!!" like he was really worried about it.

While it was very interesting, sadly it's not something I'll be able to do on a home basis. Even if I could manage to create the sterile conditions needed (he gave us torenia plants, which are not only easy to root but can grow in agar that is saturated with antifungal) but each plant species needs a different growing media formula, and the formulas can take like 25 different ingredients each. I assume at least some of those ingredients are expensive.

Of course I forgot my camera; I meant to take step by step pictures. Oh, well.

Friday, October 8, 2010

I wrote an article on painting with dark or bright colors over at Associated Content:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5849604/painting_with_dark_or_bright_colors.html?cat=30

I'll probably be writing about faux finishing techniques in the fairly near future; I'll try and post those here in their entirety. I need to reread the rules at Associated Content before I post them here, though.